Of Hominy, Lungs, Pancreas and Persimmons: The Dinner Table of Nineteenth Century North Georgians

Ozempic and other weight loss drugs would have been the last things needed by north Georgians in the nineteenth century. In the best of times, the food on the tables of subsistence farmers was barely adequate. In the worst of times when crops failed, periods of hunger were endured. Mountain people were lean for good reason; there was never enough food to put meat on their bones.

The daily fight for survival throughout the 1800s depended upon what could be grown in fields and gardens, the hogs a family raised and the game hunted in forests. There were few towns where goods could be purchased. The stores that existed, which could be reached by a tortuous journey on rutted and frequently impassable roads, offered only the most rudimentary staples such as wheat flour, salt and sugar. But even these items usually were in short supply and could be bought only with cash (which was scarce) or by bartering with apples, deerskins and even moonshine. Hardscrabble lifestyles and meager diets were the result of these challenging conditions.

Diets Limited by Mountainous Terrain

The limitations imposed upon food production by mountainous terrain dictated the diets of north Georgians. Only in flat, fertile river valleys could numerous crops be cultivated and livestock herds raised. Such was the case in the valley of the Little Tennessee River in northern Rabun and southern Macon (N.C.) counties. But in a region dominated by mountains, most north Georgians were limited to what they could scratch out of rocky hillsides and what their animals could forage in forests.

Corn became the staple crop and hogs the primary source of meat. The diet of corn and pork was supplemented by cabbage, beans, potatoes and pumpkins from the family garden. Game was hunted and wild fruits, berries, nuts and other edibles were gathered in season.

Meals were determined by what was available at any particular time. Corn, the centerpiece of the mountain diet, was boiled on the cob, or kernels stripped from the cob were fried or creamed. Dried corn was ground into meal for grits, laboriously by hand in a tub mill or at a grist mill if one happened to be located nearby. Hominy was made using the Cherokee technique of leaching dried corn kernels with the potash of hickory ashes. Cornbread might be served as many as three times a day, frequently with sorghum syrup. Fresh vegetables from the family garden typically were boiled with fatback or bacon for seasoning. Corn and stripped cobs and stalks were fed to hogs and cattle.

Everything Eaten Except for the Oink

Enter the star of north Georgia cuisine in the 1800s…the hog. Everyone raised hogs, which were released into the forest to forage on acorns and other vegetation. No other source of meat yielded a quicker or cheaper return, since no other animal was able to increase its weight 150-fold through its own foraging. And no other animal could be eaten from the head to the tail. Every part of the hog found its way to the dinner table…all, that is, except the oink.

Hog slaughtering began on late autumn or early winter days when temperatures dipping below freezing allowed for a form of refrigeration. Since hogs figured so prominently into mountain diets, people were not bothered by the blood and gore associated with killing and butchering the animals. It is unlikely that the same degree of detachment would be felt today, particularly because many people have little idea about the origins of neatly packaged pork, beef and chicken in supermarkets.

Hog Blood Not Wasted

Killing, cleaning and butchering a hog was an all-day job. The animal was killed by a well-aimed rifle shot between the eyes or by a blow to the head with the blunt end of an axe. Once down, the hog’s throat was cut to bleed the animal before its blood congealed. The blood did not go to waste. It was used to make blood pudding, a sausage consisting of meat scraps in congealed blood.

The bled carcass was man-handled into a barrel or vat of boiling water to loosen hair on the skin. If the container was not large enough to immerse the entire hog, the process was repeated for the other half of the carcass. With the scalding completed, the carcass was hung by its hind legs, and the skin was scraped clean of all hair. While still hanging, the carcass was disemboweled, taking care not to puncture the intestines, since their content would taint the meat. The heart, liver, kidneys, pancreas (the French call them sweetbreads) and even the lungs made their way to the dinner table. The small intestines were placed in a washtub and carried a distance downwind where they were cleaned and prepared to be eaten as chitlins (boiled intestines) or used for sausage casing. By now, it should be apparent that nothing was wasted.

Brains Cooked with Eggs

The carcass was then moved to a cutting table for butchering. The head was cut off first, and the brains removed for serving with eggs at the next morning’s breakfast. Free of cranial matter, the head could be prepared as a stew with diners picking scraps of meat off the skull. The butchering proceeded to the hams, shoulders, belly, ribs and backbone. Since it tended to spoil quickly, the pork tenderloin was generally consumed on the day of the butchering. The feet, boiled to release their gelatin, were used for making loaves of head cheese, a meat-jelly cold cut. Fat was boiled down for lard and cracklins.

Hams, shoulders, bacon from belly fat and slabs of streak-o-lean were rubbed with salt and hung in the smokehouse to cure and preserve them. Two kinds of sausage usually were prepared: one for the men with extra pepper (if available) and a milder version for the women. Once stuffed in casings, the sausage was rubbed with salt and hung in the smokehouse to cure with the hams, shoulders and bacon. In the coming months, hunks of cured meat and links of sausage in the smokehouse were cut and prepared for the dinner table.

Potlikker and Cornbread

It was customary to boil vegetables with bacon or fatback for seasoning. This method became particularly popular for butterbeans, black-eyed peas, cabbage and all manner of greens, garden variety or wild like poke. The seasoned water in which the vegetables were boiled was known as “potlikker” that could be drunk or eaten with crumbled cornbread. It was said that cabbage made the best potlikker.

People living in the mountains seldom kept but a single cow, and few sheep were raised and those only for wool. Every farm raised a few chickens in a way that today is categorized as “free range.” However, there was no reason to raise large flocks, since it was impossible to protect foraging chickens from predators.

Eating Ramps Out of Self-Defense

If there was such a thing as exotic mountain food, it probably would have been the ramp, a species of wild onion whose taste and fragrance make garlic pale by comparison. It was used as both a vegetable and seasoning. Everyone ate them, not only as a gastronomic delight, but out of self-defense, because those partaking of ramps had to be downwind from those who had not.

The beverage of choice, not including moonshine, was coffee when it was available, which was not often. Tea was less popular, but when it could not be had, people made a beverage out of dried sassafras root. The red-colored tea also was believed to have medicinal value. The fruit of the persimmon tree was used as a food product and beverage in the form of breads, pies, syrup, jelly, beer and brandy. Pumpkins also became a staple, used in breads, puddings, pies, soups and molasses.

The daily lives of North Georgians of the nineteenth century were focused on food…growing it, raising it, hunting it and gathering it. Obesity was never a problem for these people, since there seldom was enough to eat. But such delicacies as hog brains, lungs and pancreas were a welcome addition to a diet of cornbread and wild greens.

This article by Society member Richard Cinquina was originally published in the Laurel of Northeast Georgia in December 2024.

About the Rabun County Historical Society 

The Rabun County Historical Society is dedicated to keeping alive Rabun County’s 200-year history in the Appalachian Mountains of Georgia. We collect, preserve and display important historic artifacts, photographs and records in our 2,300-square-foot museum and archives located at 81 North Church Street in downtown Clayton, Georgia. The Society is a not-for-profit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, making membership dues and donations fully tax deductible. For more information, please contact us.